As one, the four men and two women surged down the hallway, and Ranma heard wood splintering behind her, followed by metallic snarls. Quickly, she lifted Akane up, and ran for the hallway. At the bottom, she saw two women wearing strange uniforms – blue jackets with red trim, green pants with red stripes and red boots -- carrying Nabiki and Kasumi, all three naked and unconscious, and Mr. Tendou, who was also unconscious but at least fully clothed.
“The grunts have gotten upstairs!” Megane shouted. “Get the car fired up!”
As one, the two dashed out through the doorway, followed by Megane, Ranma and Akane. Megane's three companions lagged behind, their guns trained on the doorway as inhuman cries got louder inside.
Ranma heard more machine gun fire as Megane led her and Akane to a white open topped car, that looked like something from the 1940's, a mounted machine gun bolted hastily on the rear of the vehicle. As Megane bundled the two in, one of the unfamiliar women, with short silver hair, manned the makeshift machine turret, swinging it around as more people rounded the corner of the Tendou home to approach the car. Ranma carried Akane to the backseat, Soun, Kasumi and Nabiki piled in with them by the other woman, a redhead with hair reaching down to mid-back.
Ranma turned out to look over the backseat, to see the others quickly being pursued by more of those twisted humanoids (androids?), right before the silver haired woman opened fire on them. She watched in horror as the slugs chewed up the machine men, orange fluid seeping from their various wounds as they surged forwards.
The other three humans quickly scrambled onto the car, whilst two women, which Ranma could sense were androids like her, leapt onto the backseat. One of the androids, a brunette Ranma's age with her hair cut to mid-neck who she thinks was Shinobu, turned to Megane at the wheel, and said only “drive!”
Instantly, the car turned around to face the open gate, and accelerated forward, smashing through two of the grunts as it sped out of the Tendou home and into the street.
Ranma watched the Tendou home recede away from her down the road, covered in more of the twisted humanoids swarming across it, then turned around to look at Akane. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, staring vacantly into space; she could see shimmering across the iris, datascreens trying to inform her of the status, but garbled and confused. Part of her face twitched and strained, as if trying to pull facial expressions it had once forgotten. The cold feeling of despair grew as she looked into Akane's functionless eyes, and at once she felt it overwhelming her, leaving her with no thought aside from Akane.
The silver-haired woman turned to look at Ranma slumped over Akane's body. “Is she alright?”
“Imprint conflict, Rei.” Shinobu said. “It came at a really bad time too! If we were a few more hours quicker, Akane would be more helpful when we got her up to speed.”
“Why would we need Akane, Shinobu?” The redhead asked testily. “We've got Ranma, haven't we? That's one of the mk.IIs claimed and neutralised! Not to mention one of the most dangerous people in Nerima Ward!”
That one word, “neutralised”, burst into Ranma's mind. She turned around to look at the redhead. “What d'ya mean, 'neutralised'? You're not planning to kill me, are you?!”
“No!” Megane shouted. “That virus that Ataru told you about? Your bodily fluids are carrying it as we speak!”
Ranma's eyes widened. “What?”
Shinobu placed a hand on Ranma's shoulder. “If we let you out into the open, you'd have the potential to make any organic being around you into androids like yourself and Akane. But we can destroy the nano-virus in your body and set you free. If you can trust us.”
Ranma's lips thinned.
“I don't think we'd need to tell you what would happen if you refused.” Megane said.
The white car continued to drive down the roads into the Tomobiki district of Nerima Ward, the part of Nerima Ranma never liked to set foot in. Truthfully, nobody in the Furinkan or Tomobiki liked to enter each other's turf, and nobody in the other parts of Nerima liked to set foot anywhere near either area. Far too many stories about what went on in these places had spread way too far.
Ranma had curled herself around Akane's still body, wrapping her arms around her waist protectively. Rei, and the redhead Asuka, were talking amongst themselves on the other side of the backseat, Akane's sisters and father sitting uncomfortably ion Ranma's other side, still unconscious. Shinobu watched over Ranma, sandwiched in between. Perm, Kakugari and Chibi sat in the converted turret seat, while Ryuunosuke, the short haired gynoid, sat in front opposite Megane in the driver's seat.
Soon, the car slowed to a stop in front of a small garage next to a ramen shop, the sign above reading “Mach Speed Noodles”. Everyone piled out as Megane drove the car inside the garage, then exited, closing the garage door behind him. Shinobu approached the store front and heaved the shutter upwards.
Just then, a small red car pulled up on the kerb next to the store, and a teenage boy with short hair hopped out, followed by Ukyou and two other women Ranma didn't exactly recognise. The boy however, she very much did recognise. He was one of the Tendou Dojo's students, after all.
“Hayate-kun?” Ranma said. “What are you doing here?”
Hayate Ichimonji blinked. “Ranma? Why are you just wearing boxers?”
Ranma blinked in response. Then looked down at herself. Then up at Hayate again, her face starting to burn. “Hey! Whaddya lookin' at, huh? You pervert!”
Hayate rolled his eyes and turned away from Ranma, shucking off his T-shirt and tossing it at Ranma. It landed artlessly on Ranma's head and draped over her face. Ranma just snarled and quickly pulled it over her head.
The three other women, two dressed in uniforms like Asuka and Rei approached the group. “Well met, Megane.” One of the uniformed women, with short black hair held up with a yellow bandanna, said. “You managed to get Saotome and the Tendous! Did you find Mrs. Saotome as well?”
Megane shook his head. “Nodoka Saotome was elsewhere. So was Genma. The Tendous were the only people present. However...” He turned to look at Ranma, Akane still in her arms.
Ranma felt the gaze of everyone on her, and tightened her grip around Akane.
“...there's a problem with Akane.”
“Let's get her inside, OK?” Shinobu asked. “We can fix her up there and deprogram her.” She approached Ranma slowly, keeping a non-threatening profile. “She'll be alright, Ranma. Trust me.” Ranma looked at Shinobu with trepidation, and averted her gaze. But then her eyes fell on Hayate, who was looking directly at Ranma with worry on his face. “Ranma? What's wrong with Akane-sensei?”
“N-nothing's wrong.” Ranma tried to say. Hayate approached her, his face increasingly worried. “Let's get her inside.”
After the last person entered the ramen shop, Shinobu turned out the lights, and pulled the shutter back down, before pushing aside one of the menu slats and pushing a button aside. Suddenly, the floor of the shop shuddered. Ranma and Hayate wobbled for a second and tried to get their balance as the floor of the shop started to sink into the ground.
Ranma watched the ceiling seemingly recede away in amazement. “So, uh... What happens now?”
“Well, we're going to help fix Akane first.” Ryuunosuke said. “Then we'd get into reprogramming. Don't worry, it just means that we're going to make sure that none of these gynoids will be taken advantage of by Moroboshi.”
“Taken advantage of?” Ukyou asked. “Then Ranma's imprinting on me...” Her face went ashen, and her body went slack. “Ranma's imprinting was... Was just a lie?”
“Well, it doesn't mean that you're not going to love Ranma any more, Ukyou.” Shinobu replied. “Or that you can't love him back. But it also means that Ataru... I mean, the Prime Converter won't override your imprinting to make you obey him when he wished to.”
“And trust me, he would.” Megane said.
The elevator platform shuddered to a stop in front of a pair of metal blast doors, which opened to reveal a massive chamber with a Harrier jet fighter parked right in front. “Step this way, people.” Megane said...
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(Posted Sat, 16 Feb 2013 02:08)
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